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Fort Sill’s Senior Executive Service (SES) Joe Gallagher, the highest-ranking civil servant on the installation, retires after 42 years of service.
As deputy to the commanding general at the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill, Gallagher has supported seven different commanding generals, playing an important role in providing continuity to senior military leaders.
“He ensured their priorities remained at the forefront of operations and facilitating smooth transitions for each incoming leader,” said Maj. Gen. Phil Brooks, commanding general, Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill, at the Oct. 24 retirement ceremony in front of McNair Hall.
Gallagher served as an SES for over 15 years, with 12 of those years on Fort Sill from January 2013 to October 2024. Gallagher retired with 42 years of combined active federal service in the U.S. Army.
“Under his leadership, more than 387,000 Soldiers have been trained at Fort Sill,” Brooks said. “Initially, [Gallagher] provided executive oversight of the program and budget planning, applying a deliberate and analytical approach to ensure every dollar was aligned with the Army’s priorities.”
According to Brooks, another notable achievement is Gallagher led the establishment of the Department of Defense’s only Joint Counter Unmanned Aerial System University. This endeavor included, but was not limited to, resourcing and shaping its organizational structure.
“Because of Joe, through the establishment of this university, Fort Sill reaffirms its’ status as a crucible of military excellence and is the spearhead of the United States military’s counter drone capabilities in the face of the ever-evolving aerial threat landscape,” Brooks said.
Fires 50 number 40 says “Leave the jersey in a better place than you found it.“
“After 42 years of dedicated service,” Brooks said, “you can rest assured, knowing that you have unequivocally left the jersey in a better place. Thanks again.”
Gallagher served 27 years in the Army and retired as a colonel. After retiring from the Army, Gallagher decided he wanted to be an SES to continue serving the U.S. Army and the nation as a servant.
“I saw that being an SES was an opportunity, one to continue serving, and then two, to be in the conversation, instead of just being the colonel in the back wall taking notes and updating the slides. For me, that's what it was all about, was continuing to serve, and then being in the conversation,” 021406Gallagher said.
Gallagher said a chance opened at Fort Sill after he had been in SES for about three years.
“It was really kind of neat to come back to Fort Sill, in an area where I at least had some history,” Gallagher said. “I played out the hands that I was dealt to the best of my ability, and that's what it was, the best decisions you could make at that point. I don’t look back with regret.”
According to Gallagher, it has been professionally rewarding working with all the great leaders at Fort Sill over the course of a dozen years — working with seven different commanding generals, six different command sergeants major, several commandants, brigade commanders, deputy chief of staff, and the folks he worked with daily.
“It’s just really amazing to come to work and watch people work as professionals, you know, ply their craft and all towards the betterment of and taking care of Soldiers and taking care of our Army,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher said the greatest challenge he has faced is resource constraint.
“That's part of the job -- you got a mission that's really big and you have resources that are less so. You need to have a strategy that supports what the commanding general wants to do, where he's trying to lean forward,” he said. “So that's probably been the biggest challenge is just the resources, whether it's money or whether it's people—DA civilians and military.”
The legacy of his leadership will have a lasting impact on the Soldiers, families and DA Civilians at Fort Sill and the Army.
When asked what advice he would give to his successor, Gallagher said, “Work hard and enjoy what you do. At this level, you don't get to have a bad day. You have a bad moment. You step aside. Work through that personally, but too many folks are dependent on you. You can't have a bad day.”
Gallagher said he is already planning on what he wants to do in retirement.
“I want to do more bike riding, more hiking, more golf, more fishing, more bowling, more traveling. We have an RV that we love that we have not put enough miles on yet and being able to see the kids and grandkids,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 11.07.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.07.2024 15:53 |
| Story ID: | 484885 |
| Location: | FORT SILL, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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